Pregnant Women Transmit Protective COVID Antibodies to Their Infants

An antibody is a protein produced by the body's immune system that defends the body against one specific type of antigen. Antibodies that guard against COVID-19 can transfer from mothers to their infants while in the womb, as per a study from Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

This discovery also lends support to the idea that vaccinating mothers may likewise have benefits for their children. Thus, adds to growing evidence that suggests that pregnant women who develop protective antibodies after contracting the coronavirus often convey some of that natural immunity to their fetuses.

‘Antibodies that guard against COVID-19 can be transferred from mothers to their infants via the placenta while in the womb. The antibody concentration was found in both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases with remarkably a higher amount in symptomatic women. This suggests a high chance of similar transmission of the antibodies after vaccination, in pregnant women.’

"Since we can now say that the antibodies pregnant women make against COVID-19 have been shown to be passed down to their babies, we suspect that there's a good chance they could pass down the antibodies the body makes after being vaccinated as well," says Dr. Yawei Jenny Yang, an assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and the study's senior author.

Antibodies Transmission during Pregnancy

Blood samples from 88 women who gave birth at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center (at the time when New York City was the global epicenter of the pandemic) between March and May 2020 were analyzed by the study team. It was observed that antibody concentration was remarkably higher in symptomatic women, while antibodies were detected in both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases.

While there was no evidence that any of the babies had been directly infected with the virus and all were COVID negative at the time of birth, 78 percent of the infants born to these women had detectable antibodies in their umbilical cord blood. This indicates that the antibodies had crossed the placenta, an organ that develops in the uterus during pregnancy to provide oxygen and nutrients to the growing baby and removes waste products from the baby's blood. Infants with symptomatic mothers also had higher antibody levels than those born of asymptomatic mothers.

"The $1 million question is: Will the group of women who are now being vaccinated get the same type of protection? We don't know that yet, Getting those answers is going to be really important", says Dr. Laura Riley, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Weill Cornell Medicine, obstetrician and chief gynecologist at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell and one of the study's co-authors.

Source: Medindia